Pan-Celticism and Racial Thought at the Fin de Siècle

Celtic movement. Showing first how Pan-Celticism emerged within the same context as the better known Pan-German and Pan-Slavic movements, the essay then examines the way that the idea of "race" formed a binding agent for the different Celtic nations, who were divided linguistically, geographically, and politically. It uncovers their assumptions and goals, and what prominent contemporaries made of them. Finally, the essay considers similarities and differences with the contemporary Pan-Africanist movement, and the light these can shed on the uses of racial ideas at the time.